Venezuela Prison Gang War Kills 11, Injures 40

<a href=reuters.com>Reuters Fri April 18, 2003 02:28 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Eleven Venezuelan prisoners were hacked and shot to death on Friday, two of them beheaded, when rival gangs clashed with pistols, knives and homemade shotguns at one of the nation's largest prisons, officials said.

Prison authorities called in national guard troops and police who restored order after the gangs battled in the Yare 2 Prison in Miranda state.

"Early this morning, apparently there was a war between gangs for control of the prison. We have 11 dead and 40 injured," Carlos Alberto Sutrun, director of the national prison system, told Reuters.

"I understand that two were decapitated," he said.

The Yare prison complex, where President Hugo Chavez spent two years after leading a failed coup in 1992 before his 1998 election, holds about 1,200 prisoners.

Prison riots are common in Venezuela where an inefficient justice system leaves many inmates behind bars in overcrowded facilities for months before they go to trial.

Yare prisoners went on hunger strike about a month ago to protest conditions and delays in trial processing.

More than 240 inmates were killed and 1,249 injured from violence in the nation's prison system between October 2001 and September 2002, according to Ministry of Interior and Justice statistics.

A recent State Department human rights report found 48 percent of all prisoners in Venezuela were in pre-trail detention. The report said that general prison conditions are harsh with 22 of the country's 30 jails suffering from overcrowding.